Mayoral candidate caught with stripper

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - It was quite a night in the campaign office, complete with booze and a topless lap dancer. The candidate doesn't deny any of it. How could he? It was caught on video. But, even though he's hardly an innocent victim, he does insist he is a victim of a pernicious political plot. Is this just dirty politics or a criminal conspiracy?

“He put some music on the laptop and she started dancing and she was suggestive,” said Sunland Park mayoral candidate Gerardo Hernandez. He admits he's the man in the video, rubbing up against a topless woman he believes was a stripper.

Hernandez said the woman and a Mexican reporter he knew showed up at his campaign office a few weeks ago with alcohol. He said he had no idea he was being recorded, until a different man he didn't know confronted him about a week ago, that man told him in Spanish to drop out of the race.

“We have a video of you and we're going to release it if you don't withdraw from the race.' and I said, 'Well, you can release it, because I’m not withdrawing,” said Hernandez.

Hernandez’s opponent, Daniel Salinas claims someone came to his campaign tent outside city hall and dropped off a flash drive with the video on it; so he released it.

Hernandez claims this is a set-up; one he had to explain to his wife and family. KRQE News 13’s sister El Paso station said state police served a search warrant on city hall, trying to get the surveillance video from outside the building. Whoever dropped off that flash drive may have been caught on camera.

Hernandez said he's forging on with his campaign, “I am not sure what the law says about this but to me it's a very, very, very dirty trick.”

Hernandez told News 13 that he did not have sex with the woman in the video and that his wife is standing by his side.

The current Sunland Park mayor dropped out of a race for congress after he made national news for his own scandal. Mayor Martin Resendiz admitted he was drunk when he signed a million dollars worth of city contracts. The state auditor is now investigating city's finances.